Power BI reports in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

What is Power BI?

Cloud-based business analytics service that enables:• 360° view of your business• Fast and easy access to your data• Data discovery and exploration• Insights from any device• Collaboration across your organization• Anyone can visualize and analyze data

The list reports, are contextual, which will display based on the filtered record.

Power BI in Business Central

Power BI reports are embedded in D365 BC. This means all of the content packs PLUS any other Power BI reports are available in Dynamics 365 BC. When a user first opens Business Central, of a specific company, the system will attempt to automatically deploy the above content packs. This is assuming Power BI has been used previously for the user. If not, a message similar to below will appear:

Power BI Desktop is a Free version. It will let you create reports and publish them to your individual Power BI account. It is essentially for individual use. When you start to use this as an organisation and to take advantage of advanced features, then you need to use the Power Bi Pro version, which is a paid version ($12.70 per user per month, there is a NFP discount)

The key difference is the Pro version will let you collaborate and share reports and organisational content packs or “apps”. Also schedule reports, which can email a snapshot of a dashboard or report when the dataset refreshes. When you sign in again to Business Central, then the system will attempt to deploy the content packs again.

If you see a message like below, that is a good sign!

You can check the status by signing in to Power BI. You should see a list of reports like this:

When you sign back in to BC, if you see a message that no reports are enabled you can choose to Select Report.

Then from this list, you can select Edit List, then tick the reports you want to be able to select from the Role Centre. (don’t choose the List report)

Once enabled you can see the report, from the menu you can choose more options, such as to expand the report, or even Manage report, which will let you Edit the report.

Keep in mind, that these reports are automatically maintained, so a new version may be published if there has been an update. This will create a duplicate report.

Each report is saved at an individual user level. This is why they are “Free” reports, and you don’t need the Pro version to view them.

If you design your own report, using the Power BI Desktop application, then you can save the .PBIX file, and then as an Admin user, you can “Upload” directly into NAV and it will automatically share a copy of this to ALL users in BC. You cannot control who gets access to the report using this method.

If a user edits the report, it only effects their own copy.

List Reports:

As you access various pages, like the Vendor List or Customer List, you will see on the side fact box the Power Bi List report.

Some will have multiple reports that you can cycle through.

Vendor List example:

Any of these reports can be modified, by selecting to Manage report, this will open a new window taking you to the Power BI editor.

Alternatively, you can sign in to powerbi.com and access the report directly in there and make any changes.

Daniel Argus

Solution Specialist

This post was written by Daniel Argus, Solution Specialist at Evolution Business Systems.

If you have out-dated business software that’s limited in its reporting and analytical capabilities – then you should to talk to EBS about a powerful business management software solution – Microsoft Dynamics NAV. To find out more about our suite of Microsoft business management software solutions, please call Paul Woods at EBS for an obligation free discussion on 1300 303 973.

Subscribe here to get our free EBS monthly enewsletter to get valuable blog articles from EBS and the latest updates on the Microsoft Dynamics product suite.

If you have out-dated business software that’s limited in its reporting and analytical capabilities – then you should talk to EBS about a powerful business management software solution – Microsoft Dynamics NAV. To find out more about our suite of Microsoft business management software solutions, please call Paul Woods at EBS for an obligation free discussion on 1300 303 973.

Subscribe here to get our free EBS monthly enewsletter to get valuable blog articles from EBS and the latest updates on the Microsoft Dynamics product suite.

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Evolution Business Systems (EBS) is a Microsoft Gold ERP Partner and business management software specialist in Melbourne that equips its clients with software designed to achieve their business goals. With expertise in leading financial applications, EBS offers small to medium sized businesses a complete, fully featured, whole of business solution with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Office 365, Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365.